Texans take down Buffalo, but they have work to do still.

Last Sunday the Texans took on the Bills, who like the hometown squad, were coming off their Bye week. The week prior, Buffalo lost a squeaker to Tennessee in the final two minutes. The Texans were coming off a high after beating the Ravens for the first time ever on their way to their highest scoring game ever.

The Bills came in at 3-4 and prior to the Titans, had allowed 40+ points in their previous three losses as they compiled the league’s worst rushing defense. They were blown out by the Jets, Patriots and San Francisco. While this game was probably not a “must win” for Buffalo, there’s no doubt they needed a strong showing against a better team.

The Texans struggled on offense at times but managed to put up 21 points against a defense that sacked Schaub twice, once by $96-Million-Dollar-Mario. Arian Foster and Andre Johnson both had 100+ yard days but I was really hoping to see a stronger showing on the ground against the Bills defense.

Schaub tossed two TD’s, both to tight ends, a beautiful 39-yarder to Owen Daniels and a 5-yarder to Garrett Graham to give him his first NFL score. But it was Andre the Giant that did the yeoman’s work Sunday, racking up 118 yards on 8 catches. Fullback James Casey had his second best game this season with 3 catches for 49 yards.

Foster ground out 111 yards on 24 carries and added a touchdown to keep him in the lead league for both rushing TD’s (10) and total TD’s (11). The #2 on that list of total TD’s is wide receivers A.J. Green (Cincy) and James Jones (GB) and running back Doug Martin (TB) who all have 8 scores apiece. Martin has only 7 rushing TD’s, so our Arian has a comfy 3 TD lead in that category.

The Texans defense allowed only 78 yards on the ground but gave up 230 through the air. They held the Bills without a touchdown, forcing the Bills to score off the foot of kicker R. Lindell, who kicked 3 field goals after shanking his first somewhere down the tunnel. Overall the defense was dominant once again, sacking Bills QB Fitzpatrick 3 times and forcing a fumble.

JJ Watt added to his sack total, bumping it up to 10.5, which still leads the league by 1.5 sacks. In terms of value per sack, Watt has made a little over $243k per sack. His salary this season, including signing bonus, is just over 2.5 mil. On the flip side, Buffalo’s highest paid player is making an average of almost 2.2 million per sack. Ouch.

I thought Bradie James and Tim Dobbins did a bang up job in the middle this week. Bradie James is proving to not be the liability everyone feared. I was really worried once Cushing went out that he would be exposed even more, but I gotta give credit where it’s due.

5 Things I didn’t like:

5. The coverage unit allowed 89 total return yards on 8 returns (4 punts, 4 kickoffs), 52 of which was on kickoff returns. Considering the Texans do a fair amount of kicking off since they like to score often, we have got to get the ball through the back of the end zone on kick offs and eliminate the potential for any kind of returns. I miss that about Hartmann from last season. Now granted, we gave up 52 yards on 4 kickoffs, with no touchbacks. Had all 4 of those kickoffs actually been touchbacks, we’d have given up 80 yards for free. But we would’ve eliminated the risk of a long return, which we have shown to be vulnerable to.

4. The first half offense. Yep, almost the hole dang half. With the exception of the pretty TD to Owen Daniels and a beautiful 34 yarder to Andre Johnson that got the Texans down to the Bills 4 yardline. Other than those two plays, the Texans punted on 3 possessions, to include their first two of the half, and had a field goal blocked.

3. While the special teams unit didn’t allow a return for a TD, but allowing them to block a field goal is probably the next-worse thing a special teams unit can allow to happen. Hello? Joe?

2. The Mario Williams sack and finger wag. Really Mario? You’re going to mock a player that is blowing you off the grid in only his second year? And you were a former #1 overall? How many sacks you got this season Mario for the $96 million you signed for? Only 4.5? How’s that working out for you with the fans in Buffalo? Oh, and get it right, Mario. Our premier defensive end, who happens to lead the league in sacks by the way, SALUTES after every sack. I guess if you got more sacks you could practice on that. Man, I really hated seeing Mario beat Duane Brown for that sack, can you tell?

1. Penalties, penalties, penalties. What’s with all the penalties?? The Texans racked up 7 penalties (albeit for only 42 yards), four of which were committed in the first half. Ironically, or not, the Texans had downs of 15+ yards four different times in the first half. Three of those were 3rd downs. Oh Yay. While we can pile on Marciano for all the gaffes on his special teams, this penalty problem comes down to pure focus and discipline. The Texans are trying to contend for the top spot in the AFC here, folks. They aren’t going to keep doing this for long if they play sloppy against teams like Chicago and New England.

5 Things I did like:

Ok, if I’m going to rag on them a bit, it’s only fair to offer praise, which I always do after the ragging so we end this on a positive note. (Let me note that the 5 things listed above in no way diminished my enjoyment of this win nor our 7-1 record.)

5. Kevin Walter. I love seeing him getting used more, or should I say, stepping up. In the first four games, he had 9 catches and two games where he had 16 yards or less and averaged 8 yards. In the past four games, he has 12 catches and is averaging double digits per catch in all four. I know, he only had 2 catches in this game, but is it any coincidence both were on drives where the tight end eventually scored a touchdown? The other teams never forgets Andre out there, but it never hurts to remind them we have two receivers out there. That forces them to focus elsewhere, allowing our tight ends to sneak out into the open. I love it.

4. Arian and Andre. It’s always great to see both of our star offensive players reach the century mark in yardage on the same day. That shows balance. I just wish Andre could’ve gotten that score. But then, Arian wouldn’t have gotten his.

3. Derrick Newton. We all know what Mario is capable of when he gets fired up. And he was fired up for this game. I watched Newton keep Mario in check for much of the game. That was very encouraging. Newton has and will see much better talent lined up across him in the post season. I just doubt he’ll see better paid talent than he saw Sunday.

2. The United States servicemen in the stands. And Medal of Honor recipient and former Navy Seal Michael Thornton. Man, that stuff just gives me goose bumps. It should come as no surprise my favorite song is the “Star Spangled Banner”. Seeing the Texans honor our troops and seeing them enjoying the game made me happy. Thank you for your service!

1. Whitney Mercilus. I do like this kid. ALOT. Mercilus has forced two fumbles in two games. Sunday he forced a fumble with 3:21 left in the game and sacked Fitzpatrick on the final play of the game. Those are two big plays in crunch time. To me that’s serious play-maker material. I’m excited to see Mercilus continue to get more playing time.

I know there’s a lot more good and bad that could be nick-picked Sunday, so I’ll open the lines up to you to add your pros and cons.

In other news, linebacker Darryl Sharpton returns to practice this week for the first time since blowing his quad muscle, which is very good news. Once he knocks the rust off he should bolster the middle linebacker position.

While JJ Watt has been getting a lot of attention this season, one of the other Texans top linemen hasn’t seen much of the spotlight. Fittingly, both Watt and left tackle Duane Brown have been named to the Pro Football Weekly’s mid-season All-Pro team. Great job, guys!

Don’t forget to join us tomorrow for our live chat at 11:00 am! Hope to see you there!